Arezzo

Main sights

Piazza Grande

The Piazza Grande is the most noteworthy medieval square in the city, opening behind the 13th century Romanesque apse of Santa Maria della Pieve. Once the main marketplace of the city, it is currently the site of the Giostra del Saracino ("Joust of the Saracen"). It has a sloping pavement in red brick with limestone geometrical lines. Aside from the apse of the church, other landmarks of the square include:

• The Palace of the Lay Fraternity (Fraternita dei Laici): 14th–15th century palazzo, with a Gothic ground floor and a Quattrocento second floor by Bernardo Rossellino
• The Vasari Loggia along the north side, a flat Mannerist façade designed by Giorgio Vasari
• Episcopal Palace, seat of the bishops, rebuilt in the mid-13th century. The interior has frescoes by
  Ferdinando I de' Medici (1595), by Pietro Francavilla, following a design of Giambologna
  .
• Palazzo Cofani-Brizzolari, with the Torre Faggiolana
• Remains of the Communal Palace and the Palazzo del Popolo can also be seen.

• Santa Maria della Pieve: the most striking feature of this Romanesque church is the massive, square-planned bell tower with double orders of mullioned windows. The church was built in the 12th century over a pre-existing Palaeo-Christian edifice, and was renovated a century later with the addition of the characteristic façade made of loggias with small arches surmounted by all different-styled columns. Also from the same century is the lunette with the Virgin between Two Angels and the sculptures of the months (1216) over the main portal. the interior has a nave and two aisles, with a transept also added in the 13th century. In the following century chapels, niches and frescoes were added, including the polyptych of Virgin with Child and Saints by Pietro Lorenzetti (1320). In the crypt is a relic bust of St. Donatus (1346). From the same epoch is the hexagonal baptismal font, with panels of the Histories of St. John the Baptist, by Giovanni di Agostino. The Pieve was again renovated by Giorgio Vasari in 1560.
• Cathedral of Saint Donatus (13th – early 16th centuries): the façade of this Gothic style church remained unfinished, and was added in the 20th century. The interior has a nave and aisles divided by massive pilasters. The left aisle has a fresco by Piero della Francesca portraying the Madeleine. Noteworthy are also the medieval stained glass, the Tarlati Chapel (1334) and the Gothic tomb of Pope Gregory X.
• Basilica of San Francesco (13th–14th centuries): built in Tuscan-Gothic style. Of the projected façade cover in sculpted stone only the lower band was completed. The interior has a single nave: the main attraction is The History of the True Cross fresco (1453–1464) cycle by Piero della Francesca in the Bacci Chapel. Under the church is another Basilica with a nave and two aisles (Basilica inferiore), today used for art exhibitions.
• Basilica of San Domenico (founded in 1275 and completed in the early 14th century): the interior has a single nave with a Crucifix by Cimabue, a masterwork of 13th-century Italian art. Other artworks include a Sts. Philip and James the Younger and St. Catherine by Spinello Aretino and other 14th century painting and sculpture decorations.
• Santissimi Annunziata
• San Michele: this church has a modern façade. Traces of the original Romanesque edifice and the Gothic restoration can be seen in the interior.
• Santa Maria in Gradi: this medieval church was initially built in the 11th or the 12th century, but reconstructed in the late 16th century by Bartolomeo Ammannati. The interior has a single nave with stone altars (17th century) and a Madonna of Misericordia, terracotta by Andrea della Robbia.
• Church of St. Augustine: founded in 1257, modified in the late 15th and the late 18h centuries. The façade and the interior decoration are largely from Baroque times. The square plan bell tower is from the 15th century.
• Badia delle Sante Flora e Lucilla (12th century): The abbey was built by Benedictine monks in the 12th century, it was totally restored in the 16th century under the direction of Giorgio Vasari. The octagonal bell tower is from 1650. The interior, in Mannerist style, has an illusionistic canvas depicting a false dome by Andrea Pozzo (1702). There are also a St. Lawrence fresco by Bartolomeo della Gatta (1476) and a Crucifix by Segna di Buonaventura (1319).
• San Lorenzo: one of the most ancient of the city, having been built before the year 1000, most likely in Palaeo-Christian times. Rebuilt in the 13th century and restored in 1538, it was totally rebuilt in 1705. The apse exterior is in Romanesque style.
• Santa Maria delle Grazie: a late Gothic sanctuary with a Renaissance portal by Benedetto da Maiano (1490). It has also a marble high altar by Andrea della Robbia including a pre-existing fresco by Parri di Spinello (1428–1431). The sanctuary was built over a font dedicated to Apollo, which was destroyed by San Bernardino of Siena in 1428, building an oratory in its place. The church was erected in 1435–1444 and has a chapel entitled to St. Bernardino.
• Santa Maria a Gradi (1591): a monastery existing already in 1043. It has a Baroque interior, but with an altar by a collaborator of Andrea della Robbia.
• Santissima Trinità: this church was built in 1348, it was totally renovated in 1723–1748 in Baroque style. It houses a 14th-century Crucifix, a banner painted by Giorgio Vasari in 1572, a painting of Noli me tangere by Alessandro Allori (1584) and other artworks.
• Santa Maria Maddalena: built in 1561 over a pre-14th century structure. It houses a Madonna with Child (Madonna of the Rose) by Spinello Aretino, visible in the high altar (c. 1525) designed by Guillaume de Marcillat. It is now private property.
• Pieve di San Paolo: erected as Palaeo-Christian baptismal church, rebuilt in the 8th-9th centuries and then rebuilt in Romanesque style in the 13th century. The bell tower is from the 14th-15th centuries. The entire church was again renovated after the 1796 earthquake. It has kept 15th-century frescoes by Lorentino d'Andrea and a cyborium. The transept entrance has granite columns with marble capitals from the 5th century AD.
• Pieve di Sant'Eugenia al Bagnoro: documented from 1012, it was one of the most important pievi of the diocese during the Middle Ages. The presbytery area is from the 12th century, while the rest is from the 11th century. The bell tower, partially ruined, stands on one of the three apses.
• Pieve di San Donnino a Maiano, at Palazzo del Pero (6th–9th centuries): documented from 1064, it replaced a Palaeo-Christian baptismal church. The frontal part was rebuilt in the 14th century. The apse has 15th century frescoes and a wooden Madonna with Child from the same age.

Others

• Roman amphitheatre and museum
• Palazzo dei Priori: erected in 1333, has been the seat of the city's magistratures until today. The edifice was numerous times restored and renovated; the interior has a court from the 16th century, a stone statue portraying a Madonna with Child (1339), frescoes, busts of illustrious Aretines, two paintings by Giorgio Vasari. The square tower is from 1337.
• Medici Fortress (Fortezza Medicea): designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and completed in 1538–1560. It was partly dismantled by the French in the early 19th century.
• Palazzo Camaiani-Albergotti (14th century, renovated in the 16th century), with the Torre della Bigazza
• Palazzo Bruni-Ciocchi: Renaissance edifice attributed to Bernardo Rossellino. It is seat of the State Museum of Medieval and Modern Art.
• Palazzo Pretorio: which was seat of the People's Captain until 1290. The façade has coat of armas of the captains, podestà and commissaries of the city from 14th to 18th century. Only one of the two original towers remains.
• House of Petrarch (Casa del Petrarca)
• Casa Vasari (in Via XX Settembre): an older house rebuilt in 1547 by Giorgio Vasari and frescoed by him; now open as a museum, it also contains 16th-century archives. The main rooms were decorated by Vasari in an illusionist manner. The drawing room, where Vasare painted the life journey of an artist, with the artistic virtues protected by the gods of antiquite represented as heavenly bodies, is remarkable.
• Ivan Bruschi House and Museum (Casa-Museo Ivan Bruschi)
• Gaio Cilnio Mecenate Archeological Museum
• Civic Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
• UnoAErre Jewelry Museum

Sports

• Associazione Calcio Arezzo (
  A.C. Arezzo
  )
• Vasari Rugby Arezzo
• Club sommozzatori Calypso – Federazione Italiana Attività Subacquee – Sez. Terr. Arezzo (diving)

Notable people

• Margaritone d'Arezzo (c. 1250 – 1290), 13th-century painter
• Giovanni Filippo Apolloni (1620–1688), 17th century poet and librettist
• Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), author, playwright, poet and satirist, inventor of modern literary pornography
• Roberto Benigni (born 1952), actor and director
• Daniele Bennati (born 1980), cyclist
• Fabio Bidini (born 1968), pianist
• Mario Cassi (born 1973), baritone
• Andrea Cesalpino (1524–1603), physician, botanist and philosopher
• Guido d'Arezzo (c. 991–992 – after 1033), music theorist of the Middle Ages, inventor of modern music notation. He lived in Arezzo for many years, and possibly born there.
• Piero della Francesca (1412–1492), painter. He spent most of his life in the city of Arezzo.
• Bartolomeo di ser Gorello (1322/26 – c. 1390), author of the first town chronicle of Arezzo
• Luc Ferrari (1929–2005), avant garde composer
• Federico Luzzi (1980–2008), professional tennis player
• Michelangelo (1475–1564), artist, born near the town
• Negrita, rock band
• Petrarch (1304–1374), poet
• Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), artist, born near the town
• Francesco Redi (1626–1697), 17th century physician
• Dylan and Cole Sprouse (born 1992), American actors
• Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), painter, architect and biographer

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Arezzo is

See also

• Gian Francesco Gamurrini – an early Etruscologist
• Lago di Montedoglio
• Monument to Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Lorraine, Arezzo

Notes